The invention relates generally to a method and system for use in data communications, and more specifically to a method and system for supporting a decision tree with placeholder capability.
A decision tree can be mapped out into a tree-like structure wherein a node is located at the junction of any two or more branches. Starting at a root node, a user is presented with at least two different options, each of the options leading to at least two other options. The user navigates sequentially through the various nodes of the decision tree to ultimately arrive at a desired service. An automated interactive decision tree has many applications, including technical product support, automated banking, financial reporting services, airline scheduling and reservations, and stock and bond quotations.
An exemplary application of a complex interactive decision tree is a technical product support decision tree. A customer is greeted upon entering the tree with a prerecorded message, prompting the customer to choose from a menu of options, perhaps representing different categories of potential product problems. At each successive level, the scope of the menu options narrows as the problem becomes better defined. When the problem is sufficiently defined, the customer might be directed to perform some troubleshooting procedure on the product and then inform the decision tree of the results by selecting from a menu of possible results. Use of an interactive decision tree in this manner reduces the amount of time which a customer support representative is required to spend elucidating the problem through conversation with the customer. Additionally, the customer can subsequently be transferred to a customer service representative qualified to assist with the problem, thereby saving the customer the aggravation of having to explain the problem repeatedly before being connected to a qualified customer representative. However, the customer might be required to disconnect from the interactive decision tree in order to most effectively perform the troubleshooting operations. Upon reconnecting to the decision tree, the customer is required to navigate through the numerous nodes previously traversed in order to reach the node at which the customer departed upon the termination of the first connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,021 to Moody describes a path learning feature for a type of interactive decision tree called an interactive voice response (IVR) unit, wherein the IVR is programmed to recognize a path of a user within the IVR. Each node in the IVR is assigned a weight value, and each time a user visits a node, a register in the IVR records the visit by adding the value of that node to a corresponding field in a profile of the user. When a field in the profile of a user has exceeded a threshold value, then the user is given the option of advancing directly to the corresponding node without having to traverse the intermediate nodes. While the path learning feature is valuable for expediting a user through a path frequently traveled by the user, the threshold feature is unnecessary to advance a user returning to the decision tree after a single prior visit. Consequently, the IVR performs unnecessary threshold procedures in the case of a user wishing to advance to a node visited by the user on a single prior occasion, thereby increasing the complexity of the system without providing any increase in performance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,470 to Lee describes a method and apparatus for handling in-bound telemarketing calls in which an initial call is routed to a particular agent and a caller identifier is stored for a predetermined time interval in a memory together with an agent identifier. A subsequent call by the same caller within the predetermined time interval is routed to the same agent on the basis of the stored data from the first call. This method for handling in-bound telemarketing calls is useful for reconnecting a caller to a particular agent in a system wherein the caller was previously connected directly to that particular agent. However, the method is not well suited for advancing a caller to a previously visited node in a decision tree subsequent to the caller having traversed multiple different nodes.
What is needed is a method and system for automatically advancing a user of an interactive decision tree system to a node in the decision tree based upon anticipating a desired navigation without requiring multiple prior visits to the system.
A method for implementing an interactive decision tree protocol includes accepting a first request from a user to establish a first bidirectional communications link. The user is connected to an interactive decision tree-based expert unit which supports a decision tree. The user is presented with a series of option sets, each option within a set determining a subsequent set of options, -each option""set defining a node on the decision tree, and an assembly of all interrelated option sets defining the decision tree. A request is received from the user to exit the decision tree and the user is assigned a decision tree node identifier based upon the node last visited by the user prior to the exit request. The expert unit receives a subsequent request from the user to re-enter the decision tree and the user is automatically reconnected to a node in the decision tree based solely on the decision tree node identifier.
One aspect of the above-described method calls for storing a user identification and the decision tree node identifier associated with the user identification in a memory connected to the expert unit so that upon identification of the user by the expert unit, the user can be provided with an option to reconnect to the decision tree at a node indicated by the decision tree node identifier. Another aspect of the invention calls for transmitting the decision tree node identifier information to the user for storage by the user. The user transmits the decision tree node identifier back to the expert unit when the user wishes to re-enter the decision tree at a node indicated by the node identifier.
A system for implementing an interactive decision tree protocol includes the interactive decision tree-based expert unit having an input and an output, the input being enabled to receive user data from a remotely located user, the user data including the user identification, and the output being enabled to transmit system data. The memory is connected to the expert unit for storing the system data and the user identification with the associated decision tree node identifier representing a node in the decision tree visited by the user prior to termination of a communications link between the user and the expert unit. A device is provided for accessing the user identification with the corresponding decision tree node identifier from the memory, and a connecting device is provided for automatically connecting the user to the node within the decision tree based solely upon the decision tree node identifier.